It’s that time of year again: San Francisco Zine Fest time! Taking place September 6th, 2015 at the SF County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park, this year’s DIY extravaganza is gearing up to be something else.

Just like last year, Miz Happenstance and I will be sharing a table! And also (just like last year) I can pretty much guarantee that I’ll have a riot of rubber stamps, postal mayhem, and brightly colored goodies for you to look through!

I’ve managed to put together full sets of issues 1-4 of Red Letter Day…

…as well as some new copies of Posted (a zine all about artistamps and why I make them.)

(I’ve got a couple new things I’m hoping to get put together before the event.)

I’ll also have a selection of Red Handed Rubber Stamps on the table for your delight and consideration! Pro tip: it’s NEVER too late to consider your rubber needs for Halloween and the holidays. Interested in a placing a “special order” and picking up at the Fest? Get in touch (redhandedrubber@gmail.com) and let me know what I can bring to SFZF especially for YOU!

Alrighty: it’s back to the studio for me – of course I’m burning the midnight oil for the next two weeks!

–JH

PS: details about SFZF 2015 can be found at their website: www.sfzinefest.org. Two items of note: 1) SFZF2015 is a ONE DAY EVENT this year and 2) BART will not be running the weekend of September 5th and 6th. You’ve been warned!

I know, I know: two posts in one week. But I just couldn’t save this one until next week (especially since I’ve got a FANTASTIC interview with Hope Amico all lined up!) So I figured I’d share this as a “welcome to your weekend” sort of thing.

I was interviewed at the ALA2015 Conference by Joseph Coco, on behalf of Rebecca Hillburn and her “Natto Soup” blog. Joseph and I chat about mail art, zines, and how to get involved in the Network — take a look! (everything was completely UNSCRIPTED –> insert some sort of anxiety emoji here…)

PS: there is a little flub that I made at the very beginning of the interview…did any of you catch it? If you hit the 2 minute mark, you’ve gone too far!

This past weekend I felt oh-so-lucky: I was an invited artist for the American Library Association’s Zine Pavilion! Imagine if you will: a national conference of librarians descending upon San Francisco, who are brimming with curiosity about zines and zine making!

I spent most of last week getting a bunch of new (and old) things ready: issues 1-4 of RLD, rubber stamps, zines that were due to be reprinted…

…and Miz Happenstance put together a handful of “Herstorical Oakland” artistamps (shown above), in order to showcase them at the table.

Much of the weekend was spent discussing zines: what sorts of people make them, how they can be defined, the different ways in which libraries collect them. In the photo above, you can see some zines on display; ALA attendees could read anything they wanted, with the entire collection raffled off to one lucky winner on the final day of the conference.

Interested parties could contribute a page at the make-a-zine table…

…using materials and supplies provided by Zine Pavilion organizers.

The idea being that: on the final day of the conference, if you had contributed a page to the group project, you could return to the Pavilion on the final conference day and collect a copy of your zine! (I really really really love this idea, and would like to figure out a way to implement it into my own zine making projects.)

Some of you may remember punk rock poet/zinester/mail artist Irene Dogmatic from last year’s Ex Postal Facto event; she was my tablemate for part of the event, which I greatly enjoyed. XPF was so frenetic, I didn’t have a real chance to connect with Irene in just the right way. Sharing the weekend with her was enlightening, entertaining, and wonderful.

I learned a new party game called “Knuckle Sharpie” from Alex Wrekk (one of my zinester heroines) and Jonas Cannon (buy his zine Cheer The Eff Up RIGHT NOW): cross your arms at the wrists and have a person on the left and right hand side of you (different folks, naturally!) write four letter words across your knuckles. No peeking! When everyone has written something silly/serious, put your right and left hands together: that’s the name of your new punk rock/goth/emo band! Hilarity will ensue.

(I even managed to get some “work” in, during the down time of the event…SF Correspondence Co-op lists shown above, hand stamped with all the usual goodies!)

Weekend’s end: I packed up my remaining zines and headed back out to the fogbelt. As I was making my way to the studio, I spied this work of art hanging from a telephone pole — I felt this was a good omen for the week to come, as well as a lovely way to end the fantastic weekend which had just passed.

May each of you have a creative and inspired week, as well as a happy fourth of July! Light some fireworks for me (my Aries personality LOVES fireworks!)

As you can see, it’s been a whirlwind of productivity at the RLD studio! Don’t let the mess frighten you; it looks far more daunting than it actually is. Underneath the above pictured “mountain of mess” is a pile of items-to-be-mailed-out, projects-which-have-been-completed, and things-in-progress. All in all: a great and fantastical situation to be in!

I’m happy to announce that I am in the process of booking up my fall teaching schedule; more on that with next week’s blog post! I have a handful of new classes that I’ll be teaching at SFCB, alongside ever popular book/mail art favorites. Photos and descriptions will be forthcoming (you’re welcome to follow my Instagram and twitter feeds [@redletterzine] to keep track of all the booky/stamp-ish details!)

classes & sightings

Holiday DIY with Jennie Hinchcliff BINDERYDecember 13, 2017 at 6:30 pm – 9:30 pmRegistrations: This class has a minimum enrollment of 3 students. All enrollment will be updated on this document and sent to you via email. Please send all questions to nina@sfcb.org.

Intro to Bookbinding -- PLUS! BINDERYDecember 17, 2017 at 1:00 pm – 5:00 pmRegistrations: This class has a minimum enrollment of 3 students. All enrollment will be updated on this document and sent to you via email. Please send all questions to nina@sfcb.org.

Introduction to Bookbinding with Jennie Hinchcliff BINDERYDecember 29, 2017 at 6:30 pm – 9:30 pmRegistrations: This class has a minimum enrollment of 3 students. All enrollment will be updated on this document and sent to you via email. Please send all questions to nina@sfcb.org.